Fox News

Terrorism 101?

This is a partial transcript of "The Big Story With John Gibson," March 2, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.

JOHN GIBSON, HOST: The Yale class of 2009 has one freshman who isn't your typical Ivy League student. He's Rahmatullah Hashemi. His background: fourth grade education, former spokesman for the Taliban and spent time with Usama bin Laden. Now he's attending President George W. Bush's alma mater.

FOX News tried to catch up with Hashemi on campus. He was not in the mood to talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOX NEWS PRODUCER: I just want to talk to you, ask you like two questions.

HASHEMI: We're in public and you are on Yale property. I'm telling the police right now. I want that tape.

FOX NEWS PRODUCER: Listen ...

HASHEMI: I want that tape! Turn that off!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIBSON: Imagine, a Taliban threatening to call the police on a FOX News producer.

Joining us now is Indiana Congressman Mike Pence. He led a congressional delegation to Afghanistan and Pakistan a year ago. He also met with President Karzai and Afghan military leaders.

Congressman Pence, I have a feeling this is going to gall a lot of people in our audience. What's your reaction to this?

REP. MIKE PENCE, R-IND.: Well, it's very troubling to me when I saw a press account that an individual who was, John, not just involved in the Taliban government that literally slaughtered thousands of Shia Muslims during their reign of terror in the mid-1990s until the U.S. supplanted them — he was not only involved in the government, but he was an ambassador-at-large.

It is ironic that Mr. Rahmatullah is not interested in speaking to FOX today. In the spring of 2001, just months before Usama bin Laden launched his attack on our nation, Mr. Rahmatullah was traveling the United States of America, denouncing criticisms of the Taliban government and defending the cruelty of that regime in a visit to this nation.

GIBSON: Yale University, like many universities, is rigidly equal when it comes to gender. The Taliban is precisely the opposite. Can you imagine how Yale University can justify having a representative of a government that oppressed women on a campus that so vocally supports women's rights?

PENCE: Well, of course, and the cruelty of the Taliban and their extremism against women is well documented. The United Nations produced reports. Amnesty International produced reports. This was really a ruthless regime, John.

And again, Mr. Rahmatullah, who was not simply admitted to Yale, but let's remember, somebody at the State Department made a decision to grant him a student visa to the United States of America.

He was an advocate, an ambassador-at-large, who in the spring of 2001 referred to Usama bin Laden as, "a guest of the Taliban regime." And even though bin Laden had been indicted at that point in the United States of America for the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, then Mr. Rahmatullah, talking to the media in this country, said that there was no basis for that. And he rejected those claims, even though bin Laden himself took credit for the attacks.

GIBSON: Congressman, this is the guy who says I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I could have been at Gitmo. Instead I'm at Yale. We're having a problem with Taliban uprisings in Afghanistan. Why shouldn't we regard this guy as a Taliban spy here casing the joint again?

PENCE: Look, there's some evidence from the accounts I've read that there's repentance and we certainly are happy to see a man come in the direction of the free world. But you know, while I'm all for being critical of a university's decision, again, I want to go as a member of the House Judiciary Committee and International Relation Committee, I want to go to issue of why he received a student visa in the first place.

It seems to me that someone who's served in a role that would have made Hermann (sic) Goebbels proud in Nazi Germany should not be on the list of foreign students that should be admitted to the United States of America.

GIBSON: Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, thanks a lot.

PENCE: Thank you, John.

Content and Programming Copyright 2006 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2006 Voxant, Inc. (www.voxant.com), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and Voxant, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.